Can you give us any specifics on the goals or expectations on the reversal film you will be formulating? All I remember is it may be based on an old Scotchchrome 100 daylight? Curious if they know anything yet about the grain/rms, color saturation, contrast, sharpness, speed? Or will they be aiming to formulate a new line of nice looking reversal films at different speeds for daylight, tungsten?

My name is Dave and if you've got questions about FILM Ferrania, I've (mostly) got answers.

Before you ask, however, I would ask that you bring yourself up to speed by reading over our website.

Beyond that, no question is off-limits and I will do my very best to provide clear explanations or answers, free of BS or scripted marketing boilerplate.

cheers,
Dave

Hello David ,

I think you find we have alot of questions / will the new E6 film be as good as kodak 100D ,
As I was a big Fan of 100d / in its short lived History .
And will you be bringing out A Black & White film which is cheaper than kodak Tri X ,

We all wish the best for Film Ferrania and hope for some good news in these difficult times .

Hello Dave, great to talk with you
One somewhat unusual tehnical query I have which is probably not an easy one to test and to answer...
Do you have any ideas about the longevity of your new colour film ? I really mean how long the colour dyes are expected to last (after processing). I realise this also depends on the quality of the E6 processing, but it would be nice to know whether the filmed results will be OK in say 50 years time.

Tscan wrote:Can you give us any specifics on the goals or expectations on the reversal film you will be formulating? All I remember is it may be based on an old Scotchchrome 100 daylight? Curious if they know anything yet about the grain/rms, color saturation, contrast, sharpness, speed? Or will they be aiming to formulate a new line of nice looking reversal films at different speeds for daylight, tungsten?

Our team is trying to improve upon the old forumulae - but not at the expense of releasing a product. In order to improve our products, we must first have products, and our very first products are being made from materials we already have on hand. The only thing we have purchased is silver...

I should also point out that these technical details are not typically of high concern to most of our community. Beyond the realities of professional shooting, where of course you need to know what you're getting in every frame - most of our existing community are "avid amateurs" or "semi-pros" - and they have communicated to us that they're not as concerned with specs as they are that we make something beautiful.

That said, of course we will release a data sheet with each and every product. And yes, in the future, we will offer different speeds, daylight/tungsten variants, etc.

doug wrote:Hello Dave, great to talk with you
One somewhat unusual tehnical query I have which is probably not an easy one to test and to answer...
Do you have any ideas about the longevity of your new colour film ? I really mean how long the colour dyes are expected to last (after processing). I realise this also depends on the quality of the E6 processing, but it would be nice to know whether the filmed results will be OK in say 50 years time.

Of course, this is hard to test. It can only be simulated initially. But we have no reason to believe that our film will be any different from any other modern film. If stored properly, 50 years should be no problem at all. The only caveat we would make is that you may not want to shoot your masterpiece on the very first stocks we create. I'm not saying they're going to be bad and I'm certainly making no claim that they will fade - but later batches will obviously be better than the first ones...

Perhaps more to the point, our founders were deeply involved in film preservation and restoration before deciding to start a factory. Thus the longevity of our materials and their viability as an archival medium are always top-of-mind.

Hi David,
thanks for joining this forum!
I agree heartily that 'something beautiful' is the correct objective over technical specs.
It also makes a lot of sense that as the company progresses with making batches of emulsion, there might be the possibility to improve it or change some of its properties over time. But that not all tasks can be completed by a small team of workers all at once. We appreciate the imperative to put emulsion making first over the laborious and expensive process of synthesizing new dyes for example or getting all of the other ancillary systems, processes and machines up and running.
Some will also suggest it might be a marketing problem to start with a poorer quality film stock than you might subsequently be able to achieve. But this can't just spring up from nothing, fully formed. People will need to understand that. The last generation of Ektachrome for instance was built on the previous generation and so on. And the R and D for each new version was paid for by sales of the previous one.
So, we need to get buying stuff from Ferrania so that they have a cash flow ... without which, nothing!
Very much looking forward to it.
cheers,
richard

Welcome to the forum David, very glad you joined. I participated in the Kickstarter and have been following your progress for some time. I found this on the web site:

The first film will be initially available in only 4 standard formats: 135 and 120 for still photography, as well as Super8 and 16mm (30m spool core and 122 meters) for motion pictures. For all other formats such as 9.5mm, N8mm DS8mm we saved all the converting equipment and they will be put into production only if we have enough requests to cover the investment of equipment refurbishment and installation costs. At the moment we are unable to estimate the annual size of this market and thus other formats are not part of our short term strategy.

Please consider this my request for N8mm! If you made a batch I would stock up on it and I'm sure there are many other members of this forum that would do the same. My stock of Ektachrome 100D is dwindling and I'm starting to panic.

Do you have any arrangements with Wittner Cinetec to re-perforate 16mm into N8mm? I know they have a perforating machine and visited the factory in 2014 but there was no mention of N8mm film.

No questions, just encouragement. I have followed the story and understand things don't always go as planned. I *will* be buying some of your colour reversal film in super 8 when it's available....how much depends on price but just getting the product to the market is going to be a victory for you.

The government says that by 2010 30% of us will be fat....I am merely a trendsetter

All technical factors aside, I am hoping for a beautiful color reversal like the newer E6 films. Bad examples of a reversal film for me would be the old VNF ektachromes, or especially the new Agfa 200 polyester stock, too grainy with flat colors.